Stunger's Last Stand: Banned To The Balcony!

[Emeraldo]

Cheers BC! I am finding the @Weed Seeds Express genetics of the Godfather to be very vigorous. To think in the beginning I stupidly (trying to be clever) grew the seedling within 2 other pots, which meant she didn't make a big root ball but instead grew her tap root right through the bottom of her pot into the next one, which unfortunately got ripped and broken off when I tried to up pot her, and she only hesitated for a couple of days before motoring off again. In the last couple of days she's started throwing out some pistils, so probably 1 - 2 weeks of stretching to go hence today's training of these two to hopefully rein in their vertical growth a bit.

Yes she is vigorous, and recovered very well from that booboo daddy did. I am to blame for playing around with that Jamaican Pearl root in 2018, but I did make it clear it was not going to be uppotted, just moved over and the booby hatch removed so the journey could continue into the depths. Oh well, I was sorry to have misled, I guess I need to attach a warning label, "kids don't try this at home", actually it never occurred to me to try an uppot with that long deep seedling tube. Too much risk of the root breaking.

But wow your plants look great. Huge, even after the grooming sessions. I hope you can keep the stealth lid on it. How does this current grow compare with your last one? Any fundamental changes in your growing?

 

[Stunger]

Yes she is vigorous, and recovered very well from that booboo daddy did. I am to blame for playing around with that Jamaican Pearl root in 2018, but I did make it clear it was not going to be uppotted, just moved over and the booby hatch removed so the journey could continue into the depths. Oh well, I was sorry to have misled, I guess I need to attach a warning label, "kids don't try this at home", actually it never occurred to me to try an uppot with that long deep seedling tube. Too much risk of the root breaking.

Hey no worries at all. It was all at the start of the grow. It's not like the indoor growers who become finely tuned at tending their plants thru non stop growing. For outdoor, I find to start again after the long hibernation of Winter that I am usually somewhat 'rusty' and not always thinking straight. That mistake was mine, I should have thought it thru. That's what makes these journals great, as one can flick back to remind oneself what was the state of play at this stage previously.

But wow your plants look great. Huge, even after the grooming sessions. I hope you can keep the stealth lid on it. How does this current grow compare with your last one? Any fundamental changes in your growing?

I realise now, that the previously grown White Widow XTRA, Gorgonzola, and home made cross WWX x G had much more Sativa in them than my current plants because of how leggy they grew and how thin their leaves were. Altho in saying that, the current Strawberry Cough is allegedly yet more Sativa at 80% but has fatter leaves and is small and stocky.

Compared to the last grow, this time I have got on to the training much sooner. My plants last year were Quadlined but the vertical growth stems were allowed to grow up over the balcony rail before I supercropped them. This year I began the supercropping a month earlier in the attempt to keep that canopy base low with the idea to only allow cola growth to go vertical. I may have to yet do a further round of training on them, or at least some 'spot' training', but I am reluctant to do much more as I feel I have imposed myself on them a lot and don't want to knock them out of their 'happy zone'.

Also last year's plants were kicked off much earlier, they had an additional 6 - 8 weeks+ vegging which is a lot. This year I kicked them off later because I wanted smaller plants, but they don't seem to have got the message, is it because they are more Indica, or with my additions and reamendments to their soil over Winter did I create a better happier soil mix for them than last years, I don't know, but I wasn't expecting to have quite the size that is sitting on my balcony now.

 

[InTheShed]

Nice supercropping Stunger! They bounce back sooner than you want them to.

 

[Bionic Chronic NZ]

Hey no worries at all. It was all at the start of the grow. It's not like the indoor growers who become finely tuned at tending their plants thru non stop growing. For outdoor, I find to start again after the long hibernation of Winter that I am usually somewhat 'rusty' and not always thinking straight. That mistake was mine, I should have thought it thru. That's what makes these journals great, as one can flick back to remind oneself what was the state of play at this stage previously.

I realise now, that the previously grown White Widow XTRA, Gorgonzola, and home made cross WWX x G had much more Sativa in them than my current plants because of how leggy they grew and how thin their leaves were. Altho in saying that, the current Strawberry Cough is allegedly yet more Sativa at 80% but has fatter leaves and is small and stocky.

Compared to the last grow, this time I have got on to the training much sooner. My plants last year were Quadlined but the vertical growth stems were allowed to grow up over the balcony rail before I supercropped them. This year I began the supercropping a month earlier in the attempt to keep that canopy base low with the idea to only allow cola growth to go vertical. I may have to yet do a further round of training on them, or at least some 'spot' training', but I am reluctant to do much more as I feel I have imposed myself on them a lot and don't want to knock them out of their 'happy zone'.

Also last year's plants were kicked off much earlier, they had an additional 6 - 8 weeks+ vegging which is a lot. This year I kicked them off later because I wanted smaller plants, but they don't seem to have got the message, is it because they are more Indica, or with my additions and reamendments to their soil over Winter did I create a better happier soil mix for them than last years, I don't know, but I wasn't expecting to have quite the size that is sitting on my balcony now.

A combination of many factors are making these girls boom I’d say at a guess.... your training, super soil and chosen varieties. Top job brother and I’m already guessing that your godfather is going to be a plant of the month winning entry. Keep up the incredible gardening brother Stunger!

 

[Stunger]

A combination of many factors are making these girls boom I’d say at a guess.... your training, super soil and chosen varieties. Top job brother and I’m already guessing that your godfather is going to be a plant of the month winning entry. Keep up the incredible gardening brother Stunger!

Mate, if you're coming out with stuff like that, stop right there and tell me what you're smoking 'cause I want some that too, haha! My plants get beaten up from the weather out on the balcony and are nowhere in the ball park of many of the POTM entries but thanks anyway.

 

[Bionic Chronic NZ]

Mate, if you're coming out with stuff like that, stop right there and tell me what you're smoking 'cause I want some that too, haha! My plants get beaten up from the weather out on the balcony and are nowhere in the ball park of many of the POTM entries but thanks anyway.

Godfather is looking beautiful and I can see she’s going to explode with gorgeous buds but yes MBB rso and ww x afi buds is what I’ve started the day with hahaha

 

[syenite]

Everything's looking great, Stunger!

Continue to be excited about the Mango Sherbert and Godfather OG, for obvious reasons.

What are you gonna do with that sprayed CBD plant? Don't smoke or eat it!!

 

[Stunger]

Everything's looking great, Stunger!

Continue to be excited about the Mango Sherbert and Godfather OG, for obvious reasons.

What are you gonna do with that sprayed CBD plant? Don't smoke or eat it!!

Cheers Sy, funny how I started these plants 6-8 weeks later to keep them small, how barely more than a month ago they seemed so small I thought I had over done it. But now, it is like wow, they have really vegged up.

The CBD plant is currently having a whole plant dry and pretty much forgotten about. I have her sister in flower who is also turning out to be a little squat runt.

 

[syenite]

Cheers Sy, funny how I started these plants 6-8 weeks later to keep them small, how barely more than a month ago they seemed so small I thought I had over done it. But now, it is like wow, they have really vegged up.

The CBD plant is currently having a whole plant dry and pretty much forgotten about. I have her sister in flower who is also turning out to be a little squat runt.

One thing I'm pretty ignorant about - when will they shift into flower? Like March?

 

[Stunger]

One thing I'm pretty ignorant about - when will they shift into flower? Like March?

The Mango Sherbert and Godfather starting showing pistils somewhere around the 20th January. After checking my pics from last year I am expecting visible budset formation to be showing in around 2 weeks time.

 

[syenite]

The Mango Sherbert and Godfather starting showing pistils somewhere around the 20th January. After checking my pics from last year I am expecting visible budset formation to be showing in around 2 weeks time.

Oh wow I was completely off lol! That's exciting that we could be seeing flowers soon

 

[Stunger]

2 days after last round of training

There is not a lot of difference from what I posted 2 days when I carried out the last round of supercropping and LST on the Godfather OG and Mango Sherbert respectively. But I'm posting pics today for my own reference too, so when I do my next grow when I can look back to this journal and check on where they were in their vertical height stage and the timing with flowering to come, as I have to fit these ladies into to my available stealth limits.

Today, I performed some mild LST on the Strawberry Cough who has been creeping up in height recently and will have otherwise been in future danger of her cola growth exceeding stealth limits. So I just put in 1 opposing tie to hold her up and 2 further training wires to bend her top nodes forward and down a bit.

Incidentally the canopy area of the larger girls has now exceeded the ability of my camera to fit them all in when it comes to overhead pics, and I now can't comfortably open the left most balcony door because it jams into the canopy of the Mango Sherbert. It is mind boggling that I kicked off germinating these seeds 6-8 weeks later than last year in order to grow smaller plants and they don't seem to have got the message, but when do females ever listen to me!

Balcony girls soaking up today's sun

Balcony girls 2 days after 5th round of training - 25/Jan/21

• Stunger
• Jan 24, 2021

Partial overhead pics as I can no long fit both plants in the camera frame

Overhead of Mango Sherbert and partial of Godfather OG - 25/Jan/21

• Stunger
• Jan 24, 2021

Overhead of partial Mango Sherbert and of Godfather OG - 25/Jan/21

• Stunger
• Jan 24, 2021

Side on view to journal where they stand in vertical height for future reference

partial side on view for tally of vertical height - 25/Jan/21

• Stunger
• Jan 24, 2021

partial side on view for tally of vertical height - 25/jan/21

• Stunger
• Jan 24, 2021
• 1

All the best everyone!

 

[InTheShed]

If you gotta have reference pics, those are nice ones to have.

 

[Bionic Chronic NZ]

Awesomeness 200%.... fantastic write up as always and really nice reference pics alright.

 

[DutchinAB]

Hope you don’t mind me coming in late, Stunger! Plants are looking great!!

 

[Stunger]

Hope you don’t mind me coming in late, Stunger! Plants are looking great!!

Hey Dutch you're most welcome, thanks for dropping by!

 

[Emeraldo]

It's amazing to see your plants, Stunger. So vibrant, at the top of their veg game, moving over into flowering. What date did you germinate?

I don't know how you're going to manage the stretch! I guess it'll have to be a horizontal stretch. But realistically, you could let them grow a little higher than the plexiglas privacy railing, folks down below still won't see it.

 

[AlmostHeaven]

Stunger they look fabulous! Cant wait to see whats coming for you my friend!

 

[Stunger]

Starting weekly bug spraying prevention

Just to update this journal with something I forgot to mention. I am putting it in bold so next year when I browse thru this I'll be reminded on what the hell I did. Over the weekend I sprayed the plants with a light Neem/Dr Bronner's mix as a preventative/deterrent for the bugs that will undoubtedly try to take up residence in the coming weeks. It is my resolve to now spray the plants each weekend for bugs with the Neem/Dr Bronner's mix, and mid week with BT as a preventative for caterpillars especially from the white butterfly.

I will also spray with insecticide soap whenever bugs are spotted and rinse the plants off after an hour, as per @InTheShed's recommendation that he passed on from @FelipeBlu, thanks!

Today Wednesday, I also have just given them a foliar spray of Fish Hydrolysate, Kelp extract, and Humid/fulvic acids with a few drops of Dr Bronner's as a surfactant. After an hour I expect all that to be either dried or absorbed and I will give them another light preventative spray of Neem.

It's amazing to see your plants, Stunger. So vibrant, at the top of their veg game, moving over into flowering. What date did you germinate?

Thanks Emeraldo! If there is one impression this year's grow has made on me so far, is that the soil amending I carried out over Winter has really taken the soil up a notch from last year, where by this time last year I already had carried out several top dressings. So far none this year. I thought my plants looked well last year, but in comparison this year's seem positively lush and happy. Even the Strawberry Cough which started so slowly, with such pale frail looking leaves has started to pick up and her new growth appears to be gaining a darker shade of green, not dark, but her leaves seem to be developing a deepening shade of green, which is going at her pace, and like I said, she's had no top dressing.

Last year's plants were geminated around 14th September, and the GG auto on New Year's day.

This year, in an attempt to be crafty and make smaller more manageable plants with less buds, and therefore less dank smell to pass to the neighbours I started them 6-8weeks later, roughly as follows;

Godfather OG - 27th October
Mango Sherbert - 2nd November
Strawberry Cough - 7th November
CBD Express auto - 14th December

I don't know how you're going to manage the stretch! I guess it'll have to be a horizontal stretch. But realistically, you could let them grow a little higher than the plexiglas privacy railing, folks down below still won't see it.

Here's my thoughts; Last year's stretch at this stage was already well over the balcony rails. So to be at this point, being a foot under, they are well contained in comparison. Once budset is established the colas develop with some stem 'back filling' going on but most of the cola growth will be 'front filling' thereby building the height of the cola stems. I am estimating, based on checking the timing of last years girls, that the currently height where they are now is probably very close to being OK to allow them to grow freely from this point. I have roughly about a foot now to play with before stealth limits are breached. I am guessing that should fit in well with the remainder of stretching yet to finish, and the cola growth yet to play out, if not I will 'spot adjust'!

When I checked last year's journal I saw how late I was catching up to the stretch and dealing with it. This grow I started supercropping on New Years Eve, a month earlier than last year, and as a result I feel the big girl (the Godfather OG) is much more neat and tidy, and condensed into more manageable shape. Last year I supercropped outwards which much expanded the canopy spread. This year I mostly supercroppped inwards, calculating each little gap/space available where I could 'lay' with supercropping and LST each future cola stem into.

I will do some defoliation at some point soon, but as far as doing it for air movement, these girls are getting blown in the wind all the time, I am sure much more than any indoor tent grow would be providing. So I'll most likely only both with removing leaves that cover budding sites.

Stunger they look fabulous! Cant wait to see whats coming for you my friend!

Thanks AH, I can't wait either, I'm up and down all the time finding any excuse to check on them!

 

[InTheShed]

Bookmark that post for yourself...it's got tons of great info!